Just Be There
by DCFanatic4life
Summary: Dolph promised he would be there for her, and when he isn't, what is AJ supposed to do? Dolph/AJ *One-shot*


**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the people in this story. The characters belong to WWE, and the people own themselves.**

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A/N: So someone requested this on tumblr, "Can you write a fic where AJ leaves Punk standing at the altar because Dolph was supposed to be at their wedding and when she doesn't see him in the crowd she worries and goes off to find him?" I wrote it over there, and I'm just reposting it over here so anyone who doesn't follow me over there can read it.

It's just a one-shot, but I still hope that you all like it, and I would love it if you reviewed to tell me what you think. If you want to be brutal, go ahead, I'm not easily bothered. I just hope you enjoy it and review it. :)

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"Are you ready, sweetheart?"

AJ looked to her father and she took a deep breath, putting on her best smile. Was she ready? She wasn't entirely sure, but it seemed too late to assess whether or not she was ready. The 60 or so people waiting her made it impossible for her to say no, to sit down somewhere and think. She nodded mutely, not sure if she could find the words right now.

"Don't be nervous," he pat her hand which was resting in the crook of his elbow. "You love him, and at the end of the day, that's all that matters."

"Yeah, you're right," AJ said, her voice quiet and solemn.

"And lighten up," he gave a hearty chuckle. "You're marrying the love of your life, that's enough reason to smile, don't you think?"

It was, yes, of course it was. She smiled at him. This is what she wanted. She loved Punk, she'd committed herself to him, and he, he actually _commit _to her. It was something nobody ever thought possible, but he'd chosen her, so that made her special, right? That made her something different from all the rest, and she needed to recognize that. So why did she feel like saying yes to him was just rewarding him for actually committing to someone for the long haul?

She gently chastised her own mind. She loved him, and they were perfect for one another. They had so much in common, they were two peas in a pod, everyone thought so. When they first started dating, it was like everyone agreed that it was inevitable, and maybe it was. Sometimes you just needed someone who could relate to you, and he could, and he loved her enough to marry her.

"We're ready," the organizer of the venue said. They hadn't hired a wedding planner, thinking the idea was stupid when they were both capable adults. Plus, it wasn't like this was completely formal. She wasn't wearing a traditional wedding dress, instead wearing a tea-length off-white cocktail dress, and he was in dress pants and a rolled up button-down, no tie necessary. The venue they'd booked, a little garden on an estate provided them with a party organizer, and that was fine with them.

"I love you," her father told her one last time before she became a married woman. He kissed her forehead and they started walking up the pathway that would lead over a small grassy knoll where the wedding was set up.

She was in white Converse so she didn't need to take dainty steps, and soon they were cresting the hill and the wedding march started to play. Everyone turned their heads to look at her, a lot of people "aww'ing" and murmuring about her presence.

She could see Punk standing at the end of the aisle, looking dapper and slightly nervous, but happy all at the same time. He smiled when he saw her, locking eyes with her and she took another deep breath, shuddering almost as she let it out, keeping eye contact with him. She felt her father tugging at her, and she realized she'd frozen to her spot.

She took a few steps, looking left and right, eyes scanning the crowd. It seemed like every seat was filled. She almost felt like she was on show, like she should be heading to a match. She saw her friends, smiling back at her, E nodding his head appreciatively of her look probably. She could see Kaitlyn waiting at the altar next to Erica in her short purple bridesmaid dress. Her childhood friends were there, watching and almost giggling because AJ was always the first to say she'd never get married.

But he wasn't there.

She scanned the crowed for his familiar bleached blond hair, but she couldn't see it anywhere. It was bright blond so she should be able to pick him out of a lineup of a million let alone 60 people. Her eyes searched for him frantically, her head swinging slightly from left to right, but he was nowhere to be found.

He'd checked yes on the invitations, he should be here. He'd promised to be here when she called him a couple weeks ago, and he'd doubly promised to be here when she called him last week. She hadn't seen him in months, keeping in touch via text and his stupid snapchats, so she'd been anticipating him being here.

"AJ, what's wrong?" her father hissed at her, and once again, she realized that she'd stopped right in the middle of the aisle, and instead of looks of awe and appreciation, she was getting looks of bewilderment and confusion.

"Have you seen Dolph?" she asked her father quietly.

"I've been with your mother all morning, I haven't, but we're kind of holding up the wedding, I'm sure he's here somewhere," her father assured her, but she would have seen him, he was hard to miss. He was probably wearing a bright pink tie or some Britney tie he got in Vegas (she'd received about five million snapchats from the Britney concert, she might as well have been there).

"Okay," she said, feeling her father pull her along. She kept going, reaching the front of the aisle. Punk took her hand in his and she gave him a short smile before scanning the crowd just once more, but still, no Dolph.

She turned to give her flowers to her sister and Erica gave her a kiss the cheek and AJ took the opportunity to lean over to Kaitlyn, "Have you seen Dolph?" she asked softly.

"I thought I saw him earlier," Kaitlyn said, "why?"

"He should be here, he promised," AJ said. Kaitlyn gave her a sympathetic look, but there was something else in it, something infinitely sadder, but AJ couldn't figure out what it was exactly. Kaitlyn simply shrugged a little.

She could hear a throat clearing behind her, and she turned to see that both the officiant and Punk were staring at her. "Hey," he said with a short laugh, "You ready?"

She knew he meant it as an innocuous comment, but she shook her head, "No. I-I have to do something, I'm sorry, I'll be back, I'm sorry. I'm sorry everyone, there's just, it's just, I'm sorry, I'll be back!"

She was grateful for her Converse and her lack of a long skirt as she busted her way down the aisle to everyone's gasps and she would have felt bad if her feet weren't carrying her away. She could hear Punk chasing after her, and he caught up to her, grabbing her arm, "AJ, what the hell?"

"I'm sorry, but I can't do this without him here," AJ said.

"Without who?" Punk was confused, he hadn't noticed anyone missing.

"Dolph, I need him here, he promised to be here, and I just-"

"Dolph," Punk nodded, "well, um, why?"

"I just do," she couldn't explain it. "He's just my best friend, and he needs to be here, like Colt is here, like you had to make sure Colt wouldn't be wrestling so he could be here."

"Oh," Punk responded because he had done that. "Well...okay."

"I'm sorry, I'll be back," she told him, rushing off again and leaving him there. She rushed into the posh estate, searching from room to room and calling out for him, but she was met with only silence and the ghosts of generations past as the paintings seemed to stare at her with the same look Kaitlyn had.

She found herself out front where all the parking was, and as she was about to rush to another part of the gardens, she saw Dolph sitting in his rental car, his head resting on his forearms, which were resting on the steering wheel. He looked asleep, and maybe he'd fallen asleep waiting for the wedding to start? He and the other WWE wrestlers attending had flown in just for this fresh from traveling.

She walked over to his car, the gravel crunching under her feet, and she stopped in front of his partially opened window. She reached out and knocked, startling him as he sat up straight, looking around to see what that was. He turned to his left and saw AJ.

"What are you doing in there?" she asked.

"Aren't you supposed to be getting married?" he joked, but it didn't sound much like a joke to her.

"Can you get out of there?" she asked. He seemed to contemplate this for a minute before he reached for the door handle. AJ took a step back as he opened the door and stepped out into the sunshine. They stood there awkwardly before AJ made the first move and walked around to his trunk, lifting herself onto it so she was sitting with her feet resting on his bumper. He took her cue and mimicked her position. "Pink tie," she mused, knowing him so well.

"You know me and pink," he said, "but um, you should get back out there, get married."

"Not without you there," she answered him, "they can wait. I...just, I was walking down the aisle, and I was looking for you, and you weren't there, and I went a little crazy, Punk came after me, I explained, he's probably cutting a pipebomb on them or something."

"Glad I'm out here then, but really, go get married."

"You won't come with me if I leave though," she stated, observing that he was making no intimation that he was going to move.

"Probably not."

"I know you and Punk had some weird falling out, not that you were friends, but I know you were friendly, but it'd be really important for me to have you there. You're my best friend, and best friends are supposed to be there when you get married, it's like the rule."

"AJ..." His voice sounded tired, defeated almost, and she reached out to grab his hand, but he pulled it away and rested it in between his legs, out of her immediate reach.

"What's wrong?" She didn't get what was happening. "Don't you want me to be happy?"

"More than anything in the world," he turned to look at her and she could almost swear that his eyes had tears in them, but surely it was just the way the light was reflecting off the impossible blue that were his eyes.

"So..."

"I thought I could...come to this, I really did, but I can't, AJ, I'm sorry."

"Punk isn't all that bad, I promise he won't even talk to you, but whatever it is between you two that has you guys being weird, maybe you should talk it out."

"It's you, AJ," he gave a mirthless laugh, one filled with the weight of struggle and heartbreak. "You're what's between us. I'm in love with you. I have been for a long time."

"What?" Maybe it shouldn't have been a surprise to her, but it was, and her heart quickened at his confession.

"Well, that answers my question of whether or not you suspected it," Dolph said, "look, I do, and I want you to be happy, but it's difficult for me to see it happen. Please don't take this as me opposing to this wedding, it's not, it's me wanting happiness for you and struggling to come to terms with the fact that it's not with me. It's nothing to do with you. You didn't make any wrong choices, and there was never a moment where you had to decide and didn't choose me. I never put my horse in the race. None of this is your fault, and you should go get married, and you should have the most amazing life. I just need time to adjust, with myself and my own heart, to the idea that it won't be with me."

She digested the information, and it was a lot to digest right before her wedding. It would be a lot to digest months before her wedding. All she knew was that she'd been breaking her best friend's heart everyday for the past ten months. Every single second he'd internalized his heartbreak in order to make sure she was happy. She'd talked to him endlessly about things that now she saw probably hurt him ways she could never fathom.

She leaned over and covered her face, almost ashamed, "I'm so sorry," she said, and she didn't want to start crying, but it was like in the moment she felt his overwhelming hurt pressing into her like a tidal wave.

"Hey, hey, none of that, not today," he told her, and he made motion to wrap his arm around her, but stopped himself short. He couldn't let himself, not right now. "You're happy, and I'm happy you're happy. Let's leave it at that."

"But it's not okay, _you're_ not okay."

"I will be though. I mean, maybe we just weren't ever supposed to go there, and I'll come to terms with that. Sometimes what we think is meant to be really isn't."

The words hit her like a ton of bricks, and it was like she was hit with an epiphany. She'd just run out of her _wedding_ because of another man. She'd shirked off her _fiancé_ and over 60 people just to find one man who wasn't there. She'd frozen twice while walking down the aisle. She couldn't even remember what color shirt Punk was wearing because she'd been eager to ask Kaitlyn if she'd seen Dolph. Was it light blue or white? Were his pants navy or black? Had he shaven or trimmed his facial hair? She couldn't even tell you right now.

"Sometimes what we think is meant to be really isn't," she muttered to herself.

"Yeah, and my path might be different, and I just want you to be happy."

"Dolph, is happy being so paranoid that you couldn't find one person that you ran out of your wedding just so you could find him?" she asked.

"It's a little on the crazy side," he joked, nudging her gently with his shoulder.

"Is it not caring about the man I'm marrying because I needed to see the man I claim is my best friend?" This caused Dolph's head to turn.

"What are you saying?"

"How hard is it to back out of a wedding when it's already assembled?" she asked, biting her lip.

She kind of expected him to let out a whoop of joy and sweep her into his arms and spin her around in a hug like he always did, but he just pulled back, putting more space between them, "AJ, don't do this...okay, please, don't-"

"Dolph, I left my wedding because you weren't there. What does that tell you?"

"I don't know, but you can't just-"

"I can...and I am because I have to face the fact that I deemed you more important than the man I was marrying. That's not normal, that's not right, and it's not fair to you or to him or even to me not to explore what I know is right."

"What's right? Do you even know?"

"Nope," she shrugged, "but I want to find out. I can't ignore that I left all that..." She waved her hand in the direction of where she was about to embarrass herself and Punk and a lot of other people, "...for you."

"You might regret this."

"I might," she said, acknowledging that she was doing something risky and crazy. But sometimes, wasn't risky and crazy also called brave? And sometimes, when it was your life and your happiness at stake, didn't you have to be brave? "I also might be making the best decision I've ever made."

"How will you ever be able to tell the difference?" he asked.

"By making the decision and seeing what happens," she hopped off the trunk. "Okay, well, I have a wedding to ruin. You know, I never thought it'd be my own that I ruined, I always pictured me at some other wedding, tripping and falling face first into the cake then turning around and knocking the bride into some candles so her dress catches on fire then the sprinklers come on and drench all the presents."

"That's a bit dramatic."

"I'm all about the drama," she said, watching as he stood up too and came to stand in front of her.

"Is this really what you want?" His eyes pleaded for the truth, and in that instance, she would have confessed even her deepest, darkest secrets.

"I didn't picture you at the end of the aisle when I walked down it, but I also couldn't focus on Punk because of you. It's what I want."

"Do you want me there?"

"Not right now, no, when I break up with him, yes," she said, "hey, maybe we can still have the party later, minus his friends and stuff, probably wouldn't want to come to that, but as long as I blew money on this, we might as well party."

"And what would we be celebrating?" he wondered. His eyes were smiling now, no more tears, and she laughed because this situation was crazy and stupid and still so right somehow. She bit her lip and reached up to place her hand on his cheek.

"That I found you."


End file.
